http://money.cnn.com/2013/01/15/news/economy/retail-sales/index.html?iid=SF_E_Highlight
According to the article, retail sales rose in December, which is pretty common, despite weak sales at retailers such as electronics stores.Much of the gain was from a 1.8% increase in sales at auto dealers. Sales at retailers other than auto dealers only rose were up only 0.3% even though it was the holiday shopping season. Department store sales rose only 0.3%, and dropped 1.7% from December 2011 sales. This says a lot about how much the fiscal cliff and economic uncertainty has impacted the consumer spending this holiday season. After all, it has been a rather modest holiday shopping season for all of us.
Could this mean that the auto industry is back on the rise? If so, this could potentially lead to more jobs in the auto industry. Hurricane Sandy also happened around this time of the year last year and could have impacted the increase in auto sales. I say that because the hurricane left many families with damaged property and this could have forced the families to by new cars in order to get to and from work and for other proposes.
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